Do you feel stuck in your life? 8 tips to gain clarity and get unstuck!
/You are not alone! I think almost everyone has dealt with the phrase, “I don’t know what to do with my life!?
This familiar feeling of not knowing what is next can strike all people multiple times in their lives regardless of age.
I have struggled explicitly with this question around graduations, deciding career journey, dealing with feelings of redundancy, after breakups, and even on Sundays after a long weekend.
I have worked with clients struggling with this question after retirement, selling a company, moving homes, starting a new job, healing from divorce, and many more.
There can be many tactics for helping yourself when you’re feeling stuck, but I have personally found the 8 below to be the most beneficial in my personal and professional life.
8 ways to get unstuck!
1. Curate your intake:
Become hyper-aware of the things you watch, read and listen to. Then, after consuming them, how do you feel? Do you feel encouraged, motivated, and excited? Or do you feel anxious, sad, and angry?
Ask yourself: What do I want to feel from my surroundings, and can I change to surround myself with more positive experiences.
2. Get active:
Move your body and clear your mind. Scientific studies have shown that physical exercise dramatically reduces symptoms of depression. This is because when you’re exercising, your brain is not thinking of its problems and how stuck it is, which then offers more space for you to think about the issues in a different light and with a fresh perspective. I think of it as shaking up the snow globe in my mind and letting the snowfall so I can see the picture a little clearer.
3. Spend time in nature
The natural world is honest. It doesn’t try and manipulate you, deceive you or lie to you. A plant will grow towards the sun, a squirrel will eat when it’s hungry, and a bird will make a nest in the place it thinks is best for its family. When you’re trying to find your inner truth, surrounding yourself with nature's truth helps your own come to the surface. *bonus points if you combine this with #2
4. Automate decisions:
We get overwhelmed and succumb to decision fatigue when we have too many options. This fatigue can cause us to throw in the proverbial towel and grab whatever is most accessible and convenient. But, often, those decisions are not in our best interest.
Combat this with a little bit of planning and organization. If you struggle with eating healthy, try planning and automating your breakfast. Ensure you have all the ingredients you need for your morning smoothie or omelet, and discard any other tempting breakfast items that are not aligned with your goal (pancake mix, waffles, muffins, etc.)
5. Lean into your purpose
What is your purpose? Great question! It’s not your job, your family, or your responsibilities, but rather it’s what makes you feel most alive in a service-focused way! Oftentimes, our darkest moments in life lead us towards our purpose.
Examples of this are:
Helping people overcome (blank) because you overcame (blank) and want to help others do the same.
(blank) could be obesity, alcohol, abuse, self-limiting beliefs, anxiety, depression, etc.
If you’re struggling to define your purpose, try asking yourself a few of the following questions:
What do I love to do?
What makes me happy?
If I had an entire week to do anything I wanted, what would I do?
Who do I look up to and why?
What do I do that makes me feel good about myself?
What do others come to me for?
What am I good at?
6. Make plans with other people
Humans are social creatures, and when you spend time with others, you learn about them and their life. This also helps you shake up the snow globe and gain new perspectives on viewing the world and your life.
7. Practice believing in yourself
How do you do this?
Look at the language you use to speak about or to yourself. For example, are you someone that commonly says the phrase “I can’t or “I don’t know”? These phrases are limiting to you and perpetuate your self-doubt.
Changing those phrases to “I can’t do ____ yet, but I can work on it and can do ____” or “I am not sure of that answer but let me do some research and get back to you." These phrases help you take your power back and start crushing your self-doubt while simultaneously increasing your confidence.
8. Consider seeking out professional help.
If you have felt stuck for a while and cannot make the positive changes you desire, consider working with a professional. Feeling stuck is often a normal part of life and learning to deal with it is healthy; however, at a certain point, it can become harmful and develop into a pattern and a form of personal identity.
Psychotherapists, mental health providers, and coaches can all help you. Having professional support you while you change well-established mental patterns is often life-changing.
I work with my clients to help them discover their blind spots and shadow aspects that stop them from leading the life they want and deserve. Once we can bring those aspects out of the dark and into the light, we can heal them and re-write the self-limiting stories.
Click here to read stories from 1-1 coaching students and Men’s Group students.